The American sightseer

Crater Lake, Oregon,1980

Photographer Roger Minick has been photographing American tourists off and on for more than 30 years, first in the American West and then across the country.

Minick self-published a book of the images, which he calls "Sightseer."

Credit: Roger Minick

Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 2000

Couple with matching T-Shirts on the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 2000

Minick says he started the project while teaching a landscape photography class at Yosemite National Park's Glacier Point.

"I became aware of something else going on at the overlook: waves of tourists were continually arriving at the overlook’s parking lot in cars, buses and motor homes, thrusting their way through this gauntlet of photographers not only for a clear view of the famous vista but also for the obligatory snapshot of themselves proving they were there.

"After witnessing this recurring bit of theater over several days, I found myself becoming increasingly fascinated with these visitors, recognizing what a striking cross section of humanity they were. I began to see the visitors as having a specific humanity, their own classification, a genus––Sightseer Americanus, if you will."

Credit: Roger Minick

Yosemite National Park, 1980

Niagara Falls, Canada, 1998

Couple at Niagara Falls, Canada, 1998

"I was hoping to keep my approach with the second go-around consistent with the 1980s images––using the same camera, finding a film as similar to the earlier Kodacolor, same camera-mounted flash, and similar juxtapositioning for scale and, hopefully, for irony," Minick said.